My kitty is 17 and, while generally spry, doesn’t have the stomach she once had. Plus, I think her hairballs are about half hers and half mine. (She’s watching me type this, I’d better be nice.)
Anyway, sometimes she reguritates food to a greater or lesser extent…more or less digested. I do try to clean it up, but sometimes it’s been there for a while because I wasn’t home when she did it.
So I need a good spot cleaner to help get old, dried, kitty puke stains/deposits out of carpet. Please don’t suggest a good steam clean, as that would require a lot more work than I can feasibly put in (too much stuff on the floor).
One we’ve had luck with is Resolve High-Traffic Foam. It’s in the toxic chemicals section of the supermarket.
You spray it on an area, let it dry and then vacuum it up. We found that that actually doesn’t work very well, so we bought a scrubbing brush with stiff, plastic bristles. Now we spray, vigorously rub the foam into spot, then wait for it to dry and vacuum it up. Seems to work fine, until the next time we rent the cleaner from Home Depot.
I use the regular Resolve spray bottle. Pick up any chunky bits first, spray the cleaner on, let it sit for a couple minutes, then rub dry with a paper towel.
I’ve found it is easier to get cat puke off the carpet by letting it dry, then vacuuming it up. Trying to wipe it up while still wet tends to push it deeper into the fabric.
I have used a spot-cleaner called Spot Shot that was pretty effective at getting rid of stains, but I’ve gotten worried about the chemicals and don’t use it so often anymore.
Letting it dry is what I’ve found to be the easiest, too. It comes up much easier and almost all of it can be vacuumed up once it is dry. Then I spot clean with my carpet shampooer.
I make my own spot cleaner. It works better than any I’ve ever bought.
In one gallon of HOT water put about 1/2 cup of OxyClean or equivalent and one or two teaspoons of laundry detergent. Stir it up. It’s good for about four days, after that it gets icky.
To use, sprinkle a couple tablespoons worth onto the stain, use a stiff brush to get it into the carpet fibers. Then put a white, folded towel over the stain and weight it down. Leave it for about an hour.
You’ll want to spot check the carpet to be sure the concoction isn’t going to effect the color.
I had a cat for 18 years, and my cordless Bissell Spot Lifter saved me from having to replace many an apartment carpet. I loved it so much that I bought a replacement when my first one sprang a leak. Neither the unit itself nor the cleaning solution bottles are particularly expensive, and I kept it charged all of the time on the kitchen counter. My cat died a few years ago but I kept he Bissell, and next year I’ll start using it again when I move in with my boyfriend (whose dog sometimes “forgets” not to pee inside). The cleaning doesn’t take long, and there’s no trace of a stain when you’re done. I recommend this thing to people with pets whenever I can.
I use a ShopVac and soapy water. It’s especially effective if you can pick up the solids then start up the ShopVac right away while it’s still wet, before the stain sets. But I’ve been able to get older stains out the same way.
You don’t have to worry about scrubbing the stain into the carpet fibers. You just keep dumping soapy water and sucking it up, until you can’t see the stain anymore, then you follow suit with rinse water. A couple times I’ve had to scrub with a soapy sponge, but not usually.
It works wonders for the times Lenny barfs on the rug… and the time I dropped a generous glass of red wine… and the time I dropped an entire pot of coffee. (Yeah, the pets don’t hold a candle to the kind of mess I can make.)
Here’s the classic method, taught to me in General Motors Janitor School (not kidding.) Go get a few cheap white towels and a spray bottle of carpet stain stuff. Right now, I have Rug Doctor High Traffic.
Grab off the solids with a paper towel.
Spray the vomit spot.
Cover the spot with a white towel.
Step on it. You might get two or three stomps per spray. Use a clean towel part for each stomp.
Repeat until no stain comes up into the towel.
I don’t know about your cat, but mine barfs yellow, so just vacuuming up dried puke leaves a yellow spot.
Just be sure to leave it open for an hour or so after you put in the OxyClean, because it foams up a bit and will burst the spray bottle if it’s sealed.
Will keep for a couple of months. I have my bottle sitting in the bathroom. When it gets low, I just put more in.
Spray the spot thoroughly, absorb or wipe up as much as possible with paper towels. If there is still any discoloration, simply spray soak it again.
Really good for urine stains. I strongly recommend OxyClean over other products for laundering out urine, especially cat urine. You don’t even have to use all that much of it in the load.
We use Woolite Heavy Traffic foam. Shake, spray on, let sit for a couple of minutes, scrub with a wet bristle brush, then wipe up excess with paper towel. Usually removes most stains. For really bad ones, you might need Goof Off or some type of citrus-based spot cleaner. For wool carpets, all you have is my sympathy.
The soapy water + ShopVac is what I do use on a wool rug. You just have to be sure that you rinse thoroughly or else you get an “extra-clean” area that is really soap residue.
I was advised when I bought the carpet to be careful with commercial stain removers. I use a clear liquid soap in the water (like Woolite) diluted heavily. There is no trace of the wine spill and that’s one taht sat overnight.
Kids & Pets (by the carpet stuff and dog food at Target) seemed to be the best at removing old, sick kitty barf & other accidents from my light beige carpet. The Bissel Little Green Proheat Turbobrush Machine (what kind of stupid name is that?) works well on everything else, so far.
I had actually been using Folex. Maybe I’m doing it wrong.
I may have to invest in some Oxyclean.
It’s sort of moot since they’re going to replace the carpet when I move out, but since nobody knows when that will be I’d like to make it look not completely horrible in here.
(Whatever happened to the Slob Reform Club? I need a support group!)
Second the motion on this Folex. After cleaning up the stuff, just soak the spot remover in, rub, and blot dry with a paper towel.
Unfortunately, we have an off-white carpet and our cats produce dark brown stuff from their front end that is the same shade of brown as from their back ends. This leaves a stain unless cleaned quickly.
We tried Oxy-clean and several other things, some of which left the carpet with a lighter color patch. Folex works like a charm.
I read this thread the same day one of my dear kitties puked on the carpet. I was out of the Spot Shot (which is what we usually use) but had some Resolve. It worked just fine.
